Well, it looks like Rigol is about half a hardware company and half a software company and like many software companies it might not get the best or final version out the door with 1.0. How much of the feature set can or will be enhanced on the 1000Z as a result of user and overall market feedback remains to be seen.
Based on the DS2000 series it would seem that Rigol has plenty of ability to design and steadily enhance products - and achieve commendable results. Nonetheless, it is somewhat disappointing that Rigol doesn't engage a little more with respect to individual and overall market facing communications. For example, if someone at Rigol were to better/more fully address just exactly where the company is with their various power supply issues that might help Rigol gain even better product sales and it would probably give some extra confidence to existing owners who voted for Rigol power supplies with their wallets.
Some of the specific early comments on the 1000Z scope might be fixable in software/firmware - such as the functionality of some of the menus and buttons. Others might just be a function of the price/cost design point. For what it's worth, the first time I had a chance to use Agilent scopes (several in the DSOX2000 series) I was surprised how "twiddly" their knobs are - they didn't seem to operate with tremendous precision. I wouldn't say they felt cheap but they certainly didn't have the positive feedback of old Tektronix click stop reference knobs. Having said that, even on venerable Tek analog scopes some of the knobs were/are just "good" (not great) - although even the Analog Tek continuously variable knobs were probably slightly more solid feeling than what comes on the Agilent DSOX 2000 series. And no doubt, user knob turning and button pushing can be somewhat subjective.
I'm pretty sure that both Rigol and Agilent (and other scope manufacturers) are fighting tooth and nail to deliver as much thoughtful functionality as they can muster while keeping costs down so they can keep prices down and still make enough margin to stay in business. My guess is that when we want a ton of scope functionality for closer to $500 than $1000 something in the way of hardware might be less than state of the art or top-shelf quality. So hardware might be a smidgeon off (such as with some of the knobs), but there is no reason for not getting the software to a state where the user experience is enjoyable rather than frustrating. Certainly, when customers start sending products back for a refund rather than keeping something they had been looking forward to using and owning - that would indicate the product might need some help.
Long story short:
1. Rigol has the know-how to make excellent scopes
2. Rigol doesn't seem to consistently get their best out of 1.0 versions
3. Rigol has shown the tenacity to improve early versions but they go at their pace and with their priorities
4. Rigol could/should do a better job of communicating their awareness of customer feedback (at least on key features and functions) in a way that gives better confidence to existing customers and potential new customers, ie, Rigol should work harder/better to communicate that meaningful feedback from early customers will be addressed.
If Rigol doesn't step up more directly, then the role of their distributors (such as Tequipment, for example) becomes even more important. So far it appears that Tequipment and Rigol make good partners and together the combination is good for customers. It remains to be seen however whether companies such as Tequipment can become strong spokespersons for feature/function roadmaps, or whether they can just provide (good but) conventional sales and service support.
Overall, I'm cautiously optimistic that Rigol will step up their game another notch and further improve on what has so far been very good progress over their last several years in the test equipment business.
- If the DS1000Z garners user support and enthuisasm at the same rate or even more so than the DS2000 Rigol will have done their job well.
EF